Take quiz to see if you can recognise 10 common chimp gestures trends now
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It may seem odd to think we could instinctively understand what a chimpanzee is trying to tell us.
But experts say humans have retained an understanding of gestures made by our ancestors, even though we no longer use them ourselves.
So how do you think you would get on if put on the spot?
Take the quiz below and see if you can understand these 10 common chimpanzee and bonobo gestures.
Do you speak chimp? It may seem odd to think we could instinctively understand what a chimpanzee is trying to tell us. Take this quiz below and see if you can understand these 10 common chimpanzee and bonobo gestures
It was put together as part of new research which found that people are able to correctly identify more than half of common great ape signings.
One of the researchers, Kirsty Graham, of the University of St Andrews, said: 'All great apes use gestures, but humans are so gestural – using gestures while we speak and sign, learning new gestures, pantomiming etc. – that it's really hard to pick out shared great ape gestures just by observing people.
'By showing participants videos of common great ape gestures instead, we found that people can understand these gestures, suggesting that they may form part of an evolutionarily ancient, shared gesture vocabulary across all great ape species including us.'
The discovery of the gestures used by great apes provided the first evidence of intentional communication outside human
